The Nature of Pain

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EFT was originally developed to reduce the therapy process from months/years down to minutes/hours. As emotional problems faded, both physical health and personal performance improved (often dramatically). As a result, EFT is spreading quickly among the healing community. It is an emotional version of acupressure wherein certain meridian release points are gently stimulated by tapping on them with the fingertips.

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Last post 08-07-2010 12:29 PM by Suzanne. 9 replies.

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07-22-2010 10:16 AM

Chip Engelmann
Joined on 02-04-2008
Indiana, PA USA
Posts 513

The Nature of Pain

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The following is an article I wrote a little while ago. I invite discussion and criticism.

The Nature of Pain

By Chip Engelmann

It does not take long for the student of EFT to come to the conclusion that pain is the result of sustained ignorance of a “negative” emotion. Here the word ignorance has a dual meaning, both of which apply. We can create pain by ignoring our feelings, and just as easily, we can create pain by being ignorant of our feelings.

Feelings tell us which way to go

Perhaps it is best to examine our Emotional Guidance System¹. Emotions are neither good nor bad; they are simply there to tells us whether the thought we are thinking in that instant is in alignment with what we are wanting in life or in resistance to what we don’t want. Thoughts of appreciation are typically in alignment with what we want, and these thoughts feel good. Thoughts where we grit our teeth against something we don’t like and state how much we don’t like it are resistant thoughts, and feel bad. Our feelings are simply telling us whether we are heading in the right direction.

Since we create all of the things we experience in our lives through our thoughts, our own thoughts have created both the things we like in our lives and the things we don’t like as well. And those things we don’t like are perfect in their manifestation of what we don’t want. The more we focus our thoughts on how bad it feels and how much we don’t want what we have created, the more what we don’t want is created and the worse it feels.

However, all that the bad-feeling thoughts are doing is pointing out: If you don’t want something, stop thinking about it. However, let’s look at this more closely. It doesn’t work to ignore the feelings. If they are there, the quickest way beyond them is to acknowledge them - such as through EFT. Honor them even. And then move your thoughts to a better-feeling space.

The emotional-physical pain continuum

Your emotions are similar to your physical senses. But instead of giving you information about how to navigate your physical space, emotions give you feedback on how you are doing in creating your life. We can take the analogy a step further and say that if you ignore a physical sensation, it will feel worse until you act to relieve it. When you encounter a very bright light, you divert your eyes very quickly. However, if you were to hold your finger about 6 inches above a candle, you can leave it there ignoring the heat for a relatively long time. After a minute or so it finally becomes painful enough that you move your finger. Eventually, you learn not to put your finger above a candle because you remember the outcome.

Yet in terms of our emotions, we have taught ourselves to ignore our emotions and endure the pain to the point of manifesting it in our physical bodies. The pain in our physical bodies continues to get worse until we take some action. Ideally what we do at this point is to determine which emotions and thoughts have caused the pain, honor them, release them, and move our attention to something we want. However, as a culture we have disassociated the pain from the emotions and rely on medication to ease our physical burden.

We have indeed trained ourselves to resist our pain and to struggle to overcome it. A hero “struggles against great odds,” ignoring and overcoming their pain. We venerate the victories we see in the media, hoping someday we will achieve our own victories over our own pain.

The irony is that the person who “fights” cancer and “beats” it, if we look more closely, has probably done a process quite different from that within themselves. Chances are, this person who recovers has in one way or another stopped resisting the cancer, learned to love themselves, and allowed their body to heal. We would all do better to drop “battling” and instead “accept and release” the emotional component.

Many alternative therapies including the time-honored methods of Alcoholics Anonymous utilize this kinder, more supportive approach with great success.

How did we get so disconnected from our emotions?

Now let’s take a look at how we can become ignorant of our emotions.

You recall in the previous analogy of holding your finger above a candle, emotions continue to get worse until you act on them. But what happens when you are in a situation where you perceive yourself to be powerless?

Suppose you are three years old and your mother constantly yells at you. You can’t leave. “Where do you think you’re going? I’m not through with you.” You can’t ignore her. “Look at me when I’m talking to you.” You can’t yell back. “Don’t you raise your voice at me.” You just have to endure the pain.

And it gets worse and worse. Finally, from a position deep within you, you yell out the vibrational equivalent of “Make it stop.” The Universe responds by creating a vibrational energetic field that shields the child from the painful emotions. This shield, which I call a sentinel¹, is comprised of an emotion that is higher on the emotional scale³ than the original pain.

For instance, if the child were in pain because they felt unloved and ashamed for being born, they might create a sentinel from hate or blame. The sentinel then will, from that time forward, shield the child from the pain of being unloved and ashamed, and substitute in its place, blame. Even as an adult, when they feel as if they are not enough, their response will be anger and blame. Even though the emotion of being unloved is not being felt, it is gaining in intensity and will eventually manifest as a physical pain.

Resolving the original emotion

Fortunately, the nature of the pain manifests in a way and in a location that leads the professional or self-practitioner back to the emotional source of the pain.⁴

While the sentinel was created out of a sense of love and protection needed at the time, eventually the child will develop better tools for dealing with emotional situations. The child will develop her intellect and intuition. She will gain wisdom and experience. She will grow in physical size and eventually not be powerless under the weight of her mother’s anger. But the sentinel will continue to divert her from the painful emotions until its very existence keeps the adult person from getting what she wants. She has outgrown the need for the sentinel.

My system of Light Tapping^SM is a tool designed to relax resistance to the emotions underlying physical pain. It is the only tapping system I know that addresses and releases a sentinel.⁵ This is important, because by its very nature the sentinel will continue to divert and store painful emotions of the type it was created to shield. Emotions come in an endless stream, and without releasing the energy and structure of the sentinel, it will continue to recreate itself, like a bucket placed in a waterfall that cannot help but become full.

Light Tapping^SM releases the sentinel once and for all. My wife asked, “So what is the waterfall analogy once the sentinel is released?”

“Well,” I replied, “it’s like a waterfall without a bucket.”

As termed by Abraham-Hicks in Ask and It is Given
Engelmann, Chip, “Tapping on Vibrational Energy”
As termed by Abraham-Hicks in Ask and It is Given
Engelmann, Chip “Finding the Emotion Behind the Pain”; Hays, Louise, Heal Your Body; Shapiro, Nancy, Healing Mind, Healing Body.
Engelmann, Chip, “The 3 Traits of Vibrational Blocks”

Chip Engelmann

Take Care,
Chip
www.ChipEFT.com
Founder of Light Tapping^SM
Author of Taming the Demon: How to Be Okay with Where You Are When Your Life Sucks, The Miracle of Light Tapping, The EFT Quick-Start Method and
The Born Loser's Guide to Abundance

(free at website)

Life is too short not to enjoy the heck out of it.

07-23-2010 2:06 AM In reply to

Suzanne
Joined on 08-22-2007
Cape Town, South Africa
Posts 1,032

Re: The Nature of Pain

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Hi Chip,

Excellent article.

Chip Engelmann:
How did we get so disconnected from our emotions?

I would like to add that in some cultures, any display of emotion is punished out of the child by means of beatings, being ignored, being sent to the bedroom without dinner, or heavily scolded. This is particularly true of cultures that were influenced by the Nazi rule and their descendants. Now that is quite something; when to a whole community, emotion is taboo. As you can see, I am still tapping on what I experience here :-)

Chip Engelmann:
This shield, which I call a sentinel¹,

I wrote this about resolving matters with one's sentinel in Positive Thinking For The Sunshine Mind. It's a protocol that anyone can use to move forward. Here is part of it that I hope will be helpful to add to this discussion.

Your unconscious mind is acting as your protector or sentinel. It is standing at the door to your future, and it is protecting you against perceived harm. We need to negotiate with your unconscious mind so that it will let you through the door to success. Imagine this conversation...

You: "Let me through."
Sentinel: "No."
You: "This is the right way. I want to go through this door."
Sentinel: "No!"

This situation clearly requires improvement!

This brings us to the second question, of what we need to negotiate. We need to negotiate a safe way forward that will bring you what you will be happy with and is right for you. Continuing the conversation with the sentinel, it goes something like this...

You: "You clearly are trying to protect me and have my best interests at heart. Thank you."
Sentinel: "You are welcome."
You: "I appreciate your protection. What are you trying to protect me from?"
Sentinel: "I am protecting you from X."
You: "Thank you. I have a solution now. If I take action plan Y, then I will be totally safe from X."
Sentinel: "That seems like a plan that could work."
You: "I tell you what. I now have action plan Y and will go through this door if you let me. I promise that if I find that plan Y needs refining, I will come back here again for you to protect me again."
Sentinel: "OK, go ahead."

Chip Engelmann:
Fortunately, the nature of the pain manifests in a way and in a location that leads the professional or self-practitioner back to the emotional source of the pain

I would not totally disagree but would like to expand on the meaning of the word "emotion". To me, an emotion is feedback from our mindbody. Let me illustrate what I am trying to say here. In 2004, my physical health took a big turn for the worse and I was constantly in the most awful pain. It turned out that my mindbody was telling me that I was having gas poisoning and must move out, which I did at the first opportunity. What had happened is that the neighbor had a gas leak which was going into our home, and the gas board did not believe us and did not investigate properly. They were affected by the gas the moment they came into the property; and befuddled by it, they did not calibrate their equipment outside the property, which was full of gas. Tapping and kinesiology helped identify the cause and helped me negotiate the solution. However, the pain was caused by gas poisoning, not fear, anger, etc. One may counter this discussion with the argument that some emotion must have attracted me to the property in the first place. And yes, I agree to an extent and have tapped that already out of my system. However that is a separate issue imho.

Chip Engelmann:
tool designed to relax resistance to the emotions underlying physical pain

Now I would like to ask for your (and others') advice. How do you persuade someone who has had emotions punished out of them as a child that their "physical" pain is due to emotion?

Suzanne
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07-23-2010 2:06 AM In reply to

Suzanne
Joined on 08-22-2007
Cape Town, South Africa
Posts 1,032

Re: The Nature of Pain

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Hi Chip,

Excellent article.

Chip Engelmann:
How did we get so disconnected from our emotions?

I would like to add that in some cultures, any display of emotion is punished out of the child, by means of beatings, being ignored, being sent to the bedroom without dinner, or heavily scolded. This is particularly true of cultures that were influenced by the Nazi rule and their descendants. Now that is quite something, when to a whole community, emotion is taboo. As you can see, I am still tapping on what I experience here :-)

Chip Engelmann:
This shield, which I call a sentinel¹,

Chip Engelmann:
Fortunately, the nature of the pain manifests in a way and in a location that leads the professional or self-practitioner back to the emotional source of the pain

Chip Engelmann:
tool designed to relax resistance to the emotions underlying physical pain

Now I would like to ask for your (and others') advice. How do you persuade someone who has had emotions punished out of them as a child that their "physical" pain is due to emotion? All suggestions are very welcome :-)

07-23-2010 10:02 AM In reply to

Chip Engelmann
Joined on 02-04-2008
Indiana, PA USA
Posts 513

Re: The Nature of Pain

Reply Contact

Suzanne:
Hi Chip,
Excellent article.

Thanks.

Suzanne:
I wrote this about resolving matters with one's sentinel in Positive Thinking For The Sunshine Mind. It's a protocol that anyone can use to move forward. Here is part of it that I hope will be helpful to add to this discussion.
Your unconscious mind is acting as your protector or sentinel. It is standing at the door to your future, and it is protecting you against perceived harm. We need to negotiate with your unconscious mind so that it will let you through the door to success. Imagine this conversation...

You: "Let me through."
Sentinel: "No."
You: "This is the right way. I want to go through this door."
Sentinel: "No!"

This situation clearly requires improvement!

This brings us to the second question, of what we need to negotiate. We need to negotiate a safe way forward that will bring you what you will be happy with and is right for you. Continuing the conversation with the sentinel, it goes something like this...

You: "You clearly are trying to protect me and have my best interests at heart. Thank you."
Sentinel: "You are welcome."
You: "I appreciate your protection. What are you trying to protect me from?"
Sentinel: "I am protecting you from X."
You: "Thank you. I have a solution now. If I take action plan Y, then I will be totally safe from X."
Sentinel: "That seems like a plan that could work."
You: "I tell you what. I now have action plan Y and will go through this door if you let me. I promise that if I find that plan Y needs refining, I will come back here again for you to protect me again."
Sentinel: "OK, go ahead.

Excellent!

Once you identify the sentinel you can talk to it. I have my clients ask it what it is protecting them from. Once they clear up all the emotions the sentinel is protecting them from, it can be released permanently, and that energy that "collects emotions" is gone.

This is a three step process.

1) You show the sentinel gratitude and appreciation for all the years it has protected you and helped you survive. (Which you already did.)

2) You release the attachment to it.

Even though I'll be sad to see it go, it has protected me all these years, it has been my loyal guardian...

3) You release the fear of not being protected.

Even though I'm afraid I won't know what to do without it, how will I protect myself, how will I feel safe...

I also point out they now that they are older they already have tools that are more suited to dealing with their emotions. I have them tap on:

I give myself permission to use my intellect
I give myself permission to use my intuition
I give myself permission to use my emotional guidance system.
I give myself permission to use my wisdom.

At this point they should be able to release the sentinel permanently. If not, we revisit the question: What are you protecting me from? and tap some more.

Suzanne:
Now I would like to ask for your (and others') advice. How do you persuade someone who has had emotions punished out of them as a child that their "physical" pain is due to emotion? All suggestions are very welcome :-)

You already know the answer to this one. The person as Source Energy already knows this. If they are allow themselves to tune in, they don't need to be convinced, they just know you are telling the truth. If they are in denial or resist it, there is nothing you can say or do.

07-23-2010 1:17 PM In reply to

Suzanne
Joined on 08-22-2007
Cape Town, South Africa
Posts 1,032

Re: The Nature of Pain

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Chip Engelmann:

Suzanne:
Now I would like to ask for your (and others') advice. How do you persuade someone who has had emotions punished out of them as a child that their "physical" pain is due to emotion? All suggestions are very welcome :-)
You already know the answer to this one. The person as Source Energy already knows this. If they are allow themselves to tune in, they don't need to be convinced, they just know you are telling the truth. If they are in denial or resist it, there is nothing you can say or do.

Hmm... There must be a way of bringing them around. We just haven't found it yet. Or maybe you are saying that I shouldn't waste my time trying to convince someone who is not ready to look beyond denial. Maybe one way is to take it away from them and say "You are not ready to do EFT on this, so let's do something else for that pain for now."I don't know; what do you think?

07-23-2010 1:33 PM In reply to

Chip Engelmann
Joined on 02-04-2008
Indiana, PA USA
Posts 513

Re: The Nature of Pain

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Suzanne:
Chip Engelmann:

Suzanne:
Now I would like to ask for your (and others') advice. How do you persuade someone who has had emotions punished out of them as a child that their "physical" pain is due to emotion? All suggestions are very welcome :-)
You already know the answer to this one. The person as Source Energy already knows this. If they are allow themselves to tune in, they don't need to be convinced, they just know you are telling the truth. If they are in denial or resist it, there is nothing you can say or do.

Hmm... There must be a way of bringing them around. We just haven't found it yet. Or maybe you are saying that I shouldn't waste my time trying to convince someone who is not ready to look beyond denial. Maybe one way is to take it away from them and say "You are not ready to do EFT on this, so let's do something else for that pain for now."I don't know; what do you think?

I guess I assume that if they come to me for physical pain, they on some level know it can be done. Often they are surprised at the emotions that come up, but I don't think any of them doubted the emotions were there.

I would say that a person who is wrapped up in the current medical schema and is mentally bound to Newtonian causality is not likely to be your client in the first place.

08-06-2010 3:43 AM In reply to

Fabienne
Joined on 08-20-2007
Crowborough UK
Posts 411

Re: The Nature of Pain

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Hello Chip, and Suzanne

Thank you for your postings.

Could you give us more examples of sentinels? I guess it could be any number of emotions and patterns?

I believe that there are other factors other than environmental issues or psychological ones, certainly our biological programming has an impact which we tend to forget about as we have become wrapped up in psychological analysis and ego in our "modern" times.

How do you perform Light Tapping?

Best,

Fabienne

Fabienne Brilland
Chronic Diseases and Physical Conditions
Co-Moderator
EFT Level 3
www.eftlifeboost.com

08-06-2010 2:52 PM In reply to

Suzanne
Joined on 08-22-2007
Cape Town, South Africa
Posts 1,032

Re: The Nature of Pain

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Fabienne:
Could you give us more examples of sentinels?

Yes :-) Psychological Reversal!

So OK, Psychological Reversal is when your energy is against progress. And as a Reiki Master, I have been trained to literally pick up the PR energy and dispose of it or re-balance the person's energy so the PR goes, at least temporarily. I have experience of doing so and doing it successfully, so I am not in any way disputing the PR as an energy disturbance idea.

But, when the PR keeps returning, there is a reason for it to be there. And that is because it is a protector! So, for example, if someone wants to get over a phobia but every time there is an inroad, they still go back to the full-on phobia the next day, then the PR to losing the phobia is a protector. Maybe someone is afraid of social situations and has a social phobia of some sort. But maybe they fear that if they socialize comfortably, they will be rejected. So the fear of being in social situations stops them from being in situations where they can be rejected.

Fabienne:
I believe that there are other factors other than environmental issues or psychological ones, certainly our biological programming has an impact which we tend to forget about as we have become wrapped up in psychological analysis and ego in our "modern" times.

Now this is also interesting. From a generational point of view, if someone's ancestors went hungry for example, that person may always want to eat. That is a protector, protecting against the thing that was handed down through the generations without anyone saying a word about it.

I'm not saying that PR is always due to protection. That is not the case. For example, some people are not capable of processing the energy re-balancing in EFT very efficiently due to their biological make-up, and that's OK. The trick then, among other ways, is to just spend more time on it - persistence.

[edited to add] And I forgot to say about substances, viruses, bacteria, etc. I helped at least two people recently when they had a virus or fungus or bacterium that put their mind and body out of balance. Once we had EFTed it (or cold-lasered it, same kind of thing), the person got rid of the apparent PR.

Fascinating discussion :-)

08-07-2010 12:18 PM In reply to

Fabienne
Joined on 08-20-2007
Crowborough UK
Posts 411

Re: The Nature of Pain

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Thank you Suzanne,

It seems that the key is to get through to the subconscious who's so determined to protect us and even when you know how, it is not that straight forward because there so many possible hidden reasons. To connect with the feeling of resistance, to feel it in one's body and establish a dialogue with it is a way in.

" For example, some people are not capable of processing the energy re-balancing in EFT very efficiently due to their biological make-up, and that's OK. The trick then, among other ways, is to just spend more time on it - persistence. "

What do you mean by "biological make-up"?

And I forgot to say about substances, viruses, bacteria, etc. I helped at least two people recently when they had a virus or fungus or bacterium that put their mind and body out of balance. Once we had EFTed it (or cold-lasered it, same kind of thing), the person got rid of the apparent PR.

So, you tapped on, ET I have this... fungi, IDLaAM, and that got rid of the resistance, which may have been obscure to begin with?

Sorry I am asking lots of questions, maybe it is my biological make-up? (lol)

Best,

Fabienne

Fabienne Brilland
Chronic Diseases and Physical Conditions
Co-Moderator
EFT Level 3
www.eftlifeboost.com

Filed under: resistance, PR

08-07-2010 12:29 PM In reply to

Suzanne
Joined on 08-22-2007
Cape Town, South Africa
Posts 1,032

Re: The Nature of Pain

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Fabienne:
" For example, some people are not capable of processing the energy re-balancing in EFT very efficiently due to their biological make-up, and that's OK. The trick then, among other ways, is to just spend more time on it - persistence. "

What do you mean by "biological make-up"?

Some Highly Sensitive Persons also don't get the numbers down as quickly as most people do. But that is OK. We are all different. Just like some of us have blue eyes and others have brown eyes, etc.

Fabienne:
And I forgot to say about substances, viruses, bacteria, etc. I helped at least two people recently when they had a virus or fungus or bacterium that put their mind and body out of balance. Once we had EFTed it (or cold-lasered it, same kind of thing), the person got rid of the apparent PR.

So, you tapped on, ET I have this... fungi, IDLaAM, and that got rid of the resistance

Yes - after muscle-testing with my Allergy Antidotes kit. The results were amazing. I can't say more because I didn't ask the clients if I can talk about it :-)

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